Goedde attended Washington State University and received his BA in 1972.
In May 2014 John Goedde was defeated in the Republican primary to Mary Souza only getting 46.1% of the vote.
[1] As the chair of the Education Committee of the Idaho Senate, Goedde introduced legislation in February 2013 that would require all Idaho high school students to read objectivist Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Students would also be required to pass an exam on the book in order to graduate.
[2] Goedde said that he didn't intend to schedule a hearing for the bill, which he referred to as a "shot across the bow" of the Idaho State Board of Education whose decisions he disagreed with.